Twice Around the Closet consignment store offers used goods with an eye toward style

Lindsey Davis and Annette Atkinson don’t want you to go to the mall.

The owners of Twice Around the Closet are hoping to have the perfect piece of clothing in their 585 Bethel Ave. consignment store, which opened last fall.

For a long time, Linda’s Consignment was the only game in town.

Davis knew the owner and would go in once in a while to help out. When she heard that after 20 years, the store was up for sale, she made a query — and then talked to Atkinson, with whom she worked at Ace Therapy.

“It happened really fast,” she said of the October 2009 sale. “We shut it down for a couple of weeks in November to kind of give it an overhaul and kind of start from scratch.”

Now, they sell women’s, juniors and children’s clothing — and a limited amount of name-brand items for young men — as well as home-decor items.

But don’t expect to find a mishmash of goods here. The owners have strict standards about what they will except. Current trends are in; fashion disasters are out.

For example, they won’t take anything with shoulder pads, and used slippers, socks and underwear are best tossed in the garbage at home. Chunky shoes also are prohibited, as is clothing with lace on the sleeves and dresses or skirts with buttons down the front.

“We’re trying to distinguish ourselves from Goodwill,” Atkinson said. “We’re taking the name brands and being a little more particular about the items and the condition.

“We’re still keeping a discount price, but also carrying a higher-end item.”

Those items encompass such popular teen brands as Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister — and the stock is always changing.

“If you come in on Tuesday and you come in on Thursday, it’s a different store,” Atkinson said. “That’s the exciting thing about consignment.”

And while nothing is under $1.99, the most expensive clothing item on the floor recently — other than a wedding dress — was a $45 suit.

Weekly deals include one color tag being 30 percent off and one tag being 50 percent off every day, $1 racks on Mondays, and $5 fill-a-bag events on some Wednesdays.

The financial benefit goes the other way, too, Atkinson said.

For a $5 annual fee, consigners can sell their goods in a 45-day contract term, and receive 40 percent of the final sale price on items, as either money or store credit.

“Especially in this economy,” Atkinson said, “it’s a way to get a couple of dollars for what you don’t want anymore to replenish your wardrobe.”

In addition, Twice Around The Closet donates clothes to agencies, and Kitsap Recovery Center, a consigner, gives the proceeds from items sold to the charity.

Consignment days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Contact Port Orchard Independent Staff Writer Chris Chancellor at cchancellor@portorchardindependent.com or (360) 876-4414.

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